By Ken Bediako
The real football pundits all agree that a good football coach must of necessity be a good teacher. In other words, his primary asset is to be able to read a game thoroughly and pick suitable players to play suitable roles.
We are talking here about coaches for national teams and top professional clubs whose players have gone past the rudiments of the game and not about to be taught how to kick the ball.
Any coach incapable of taking decisions nor sticking to one has no business disturbing the sanctity of that game of passion. And just as one of my editors at the Daily Graphic used to say in journalism you are judged by your daily performance. I think this applies to football coaching as well.
My decades of experience with coaches of our national teams, particularly the Black Stars has shown me that capacity to read a game, relationship with players and dressing room management play a major part in good team building.
Footballers at the national level are not that easy to handle because of their fame but without showing any disrespect when off the pitch, most of them don’t show even half the brilliance or intelligence they display on the pitch. Most of them need careful guidance.
It is worrying most of them don’t have trusted acquaintances. They are unnecessarily superstitious and could easily fall into bad company of swindlers and self-imposed managers who indulge in dubious contracts.
This is not helping the nation to maintain a solid crop of footballers who will see the game as a great profession with long term benefits.
Current trends have shown that football is growing at a fantastic rate with talks about bi- annual world Cup and European super league etc.
Multinational companies are prepared to sink money into the game. In short, there is so much money in football these days our administrators should be careful of accountability
Thousands of dollars being thrown about in search of a coach for the Black Stars is a big drain on the national purse. We must therefore get value for money and quickly revive the gradually dying spirit of our beloved Black Stars.
No matter what the nonbelievers would say football is the passion of our dear nation Ghana and those privileged to manage the game should show enough dedication to walk a straight path and earn national adulation.
On this note I would like to bid farewell to Serbian Coach Milovan. Maybe he meant well but was a victim of circumstances beyond his reach. The sages say not all that glitters is gold.
Cheers everybody and keep loving Sports
